Nrityagram Dance Ensemble – review

South Asian dance is thriving in Britain, yet most of the work grabbing the limelight tends to be some form of contemporary fusion: classical Indian dance mixed with modern western moves, Kathak mashed with hip-hop. So it's a particular pleasure to see the Edinburgh debut of the Nrityagram Ensemble from Bangalore – a company dedicated to revivifying the most ancient of Indian dances, Odissi.

Odissi originated from the Hindu and tantric temples of Orissa, and in contrast to the more chiselled angles of bharatanatyam (the form most widely seen in the UK), it celebrates the beauty of the curve. Movement snakes and undulates through the dancer's body: opening out in lavish sweeps of her upper torso, rippling in a gracious eddy along her arm, settling in the delicate curl of her finger.

As performed by the three superb female dancers from Nrityagram, it is hypnotically lovely to watch. The flow and precision of their movement makes you think of water, of unravelling silk. When all three are dancing in unison (choreographer Surupa Sen's innovatory departure from Odissi's traditional solo format), they create the kind of transformative effect we normally expect from the synchronised poetry of a great corps de ballet, such as the Mariinsky.

The best of the five short pieces in the programme is Vibhakta, a duet set to lyrics evoking the eternal union of male and female (Shiva and Shivah). The choreography lavishly evokes the blending of the spiritual and erotic in Odissi dance, as the two women simultaneously convey the heft and magnificence of Shiva, the colour, wit and sensuality of Shivah. Images of "her body … sprinkled with musk-vermilion powder", his body garbed in "a multitude of glistening snakes" are vividly evoked. This is an ancient dance, joyously and sexily performed in the present tense.